Trying to find the best wireless PCIe card for my router.

Bojangle12 · Dec 18, 2015

My router is a Verizon one. I looked on the sticker and it is an Actiontec MI424WR Revision 1 router. I searched online for product info but had trouble finding exactly what I need. Here is a link to the product's .pdf manual:

https://www.verizon.com/cs/groups/public/documents/adacct/vz_bhr3_rev_i_user_manual.pdf

I know it is an 802.11 b/g/n router, so I need to get a PCIe card for that. But do I need to get a dual band card? That's what I can't find out. I called the guy at Fry's and he tried to help. He pointed out they have multiple cards, at different prices, and I don't want to spend extra money on a card that goes beyond what I need. For example, getting a card that has max speed of 600 Mbps when my router is only a 300 Mbps.

Any help appreciated.

andy_Man · Dec 18, 2015

That router is pretty limited. It seems to only be 2.4Ghz single band.
If you are upgrading wireless because you want a better connection, you might want to see if there are too many devices in the area on the 2.4Ghz band. (This will create interference and hurt performance)
A good cell phone app is called wi-fi analyzer. My area has tons of 2.4Ghz connections but only 1 person on 5Ghz, so I switched to 5Ghz and it's been great.

Both Router and wireless card must support 5Ghz.

No, you don't need dual band. Single Band is faster than most internet connections. Only reason dual band matters is if you are transferring within your LAN or if you have super fast (Like 1Gbps) internet.

bliq · Dec 18, 2015

so 802.11n uses multiple radios. think of each one allowing 150Mb/s. 802.11n can also operate on two frequencies, 2.4GHz and 5GHz. I think 2.4GHz can at most use 2 radios, so 300Mb/s max on 2.4GHz. 5GHz can use up to 4, so up to 600Mb/s on 5GHz. Here's the sneaky part- an N900 router adds the two together, but one can't use both bands at the same time so theres no way to actually get 900Mb/s.

A dual band card allows you to choose one or the other. a single band is most likely 2.4GHz only.

youre router appears to be a 2 radio, 2.4 GHz unit for 300Mb/s max. Find a N300 PCI-E adapter for best throughput.

Pooneil · Dec 22, 2015

You can look here for some test rankings on various adapters.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/wireless-adapter-bridge/view

Bojangle12 · Dec 22, 2015

Pooneil :

That site doesn't even have a N300 option in it.

Update: I bought a TP-LINK Wireless N 300 Mbps PCIe Adapter... Model No. TL-WN881ND

Anyone know if this is a good one for my Actiontec mi424WR rev. i router?

bliq · Dec 22, 2015

TPLink is a relatively less known brand in the US but it's big in Asia. They make pretty good stuff.

bill001g · Dec 23, 2015

Bojangle12 :

TP-LINK is one of the larger providers and their product will work as well as most other large brands. This card will run as fast as your router...but all cards/routers are backward and forward compatible thanks to standards.

How fast it will actually run in your house will depend on how your house is built and the distance you are from the router. If you have a faster FIOS connection (say over 50m) the wireless will likely not run that fast since you get nowhere near the 300m magic number.

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Trying to find the best wireless PCIe card for my router.

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